Steel Men and other strange creatures (3.5, PEACH)

[afroakuma]

Deities of the Leir

Although the leir pantheon is weak and struggling in the wake of several severe blows to their worshipper base over the millennia, they remain remarkably tight-knit. Many leir choose to worship the pantheon as a whole, though each deity has their own clerics and small shrines - generally little more than a living tree with some ornamentation.

The weakest deity of the leir is actually their creator, a mother goddess whose essence was tied to their homeworld, Yurd. When the grell destroyed the ancient leir homeworld and scattered the survivors, this goddess found herself broken and drained, a wound that has never healed. Her wife and co-mother, a goddess who laid the skeins of possibility, was driven mad and became the archenemy of the remaining leir, a hollow thing of chaos motivated only to cause turbulence, throwing aside all hope for the future after the calamities of the desmodu, the drow, the grell, and other wicked and hostile beings drove her to believe that nothing could await the leir beyond further tribulation and strife. The strongest of their deities is the firstborn child of these two, who became a questing explorer to lead the remnants of the leir to new worlds.

Leir clerics can worship the leir pantheon rather than an invididual deity; the available domains are Community, Law, Protection, Repose, and Silk*.

Almalere
Demipower of Arborea
The Cocooned Goddess, She Who Shall Not Surrender, the Weaver of Wounds, Sister of Seasons
Alignment: Chaotic good
Portfolio: Change, transformation, cocoons, resilience, healing, winter, death
Divine Realm: Arborea/Olympus/Silk of Spring and Arborea/Pelion/Winter's Weave
Symbol: A shield draped with a net
Domains Chaos, Good, Healing, Protection, Repose, Winter
Favored Weapon: Rapier

Youngest child of Omatra and Calo, Almalere represents many facets of life - she is the healer, protecting leir from poisons and weaving together their wounds to mend flesh; the enduring one, who does not bend against the cruelties and depredations of enemies; the passage of time from spring to winter and back again, with all the myriad changes that it brings; the connection to leir history and their nature as changing beings; and the psychopomp, who calls elderly leir to form their final cocoon and enter the sleep of death, escorting their souls away from their husks to lead them to Zass's spindle. Where Zass is symbolized by moths, Almalere is represented by caterpillars and butterflies. It is noted that while she is a death goddess, she is not the goddess of the dead, and as such her realms are filled with life, change, and depictions of the various parts of the leir life experience. She is a fierce adversary of undeath and forced transformation of any kind, believing change to be a sacred process and a choice. She is symbolized by maple trees.

Calo
Demipower of Pandemonium
The Tangling One, the Unweaver, the Maddened Mother, Queen of Delirium
Alignment: Chaotic neutral (formerly neutral good)
Portfolio: Strife, madness, turbulence, deception, misfortune, fear
Divine Realm: Pandemonium/Cocytus/Madloom, formerly Elysium/Amoria/Cloudloom
Symbol: A fraying thread tangled in a broken spindle
Domains Chaos, Destruction, Fear*, Luck, Madness, Trickery, formerly Air, Community, Good, Luck, Silk*, Sky
Favored Weapon: Whip

Co-creator of the leir and at one time the wife of Omatra, Calo was responsible for weaving joy, lightness, and good fortune into the nature of the leir. It is commonly believed that she was driven mad by the destruction of her temples during the harrowing of Yurd by the grell, but in truth her mind fractured due to the overwhelming despair that consumed Omatra causing her to become alienated from her love, and Calo's increasingly desperate efforts to mend what the slavering aberrations had sundered ran up against additional trials that caused her to succumb to her own despondence. Leiren might have been able to help, were he not preoccupied with salvaging what few leir he could rescue and bringing them to new worlds; Zass and Almalere did attempt to assist her, but the horrific wars against the grell and the desmodu, and the rebellion against the drow, forced them to channel their efforts toward collecting and protecting the souls of the dead. Watching everything she had tried to make wondrous turn to dust while her wife quite literally descended into Niflheim to waste away in despair caused Calo to snap, finding herself wandering the caverns of Cocytus in a giggling mania totally unlike herself, trailing strands of the Tapestry of Time that she had attempted to hold onto so tightly that she had caused them to tear away - threads of hope and joy, of laughter and life, of safety and stability.

Presently, the once-joyous goddess rarely sees her divine children, and never sees her ex-wife. Her realm, Madloom, is filled with twisted skeins and towering spools of shadowy threads that writhe and jerk about of their own accord, sometimes detaching to crawl amok like fragments of spiders. A false Tapestry, tattered and torn, continues to be woven and unravelled at her hands - the Tapestry of Troubles, which she laces with fear, strife, and violence, all born of her own nightmares. Calo has become the chief architect of the current struggles of her own children, but the maddened goddess is not truly to blame - she is blind to hope and does not understand the consequences of her own actions in a meaningful sense. Existence has become a long sick joke to her, and her maddened laughs join with the screams of Cocytus in a terrifying blend. She is not cruel, and can be convinced to leave things alone (for a time) if she is shown the outcomes of her actions - but while she may not be deliberately malevolent or even fully understand the harm she causes, Calo is on the cusp of falling to evil, for as the leir rebuild, she can see only false hope, and becomes more intent on destroying it. Her clerics are thankfully rare, but are usually leir driven to the same madness and despair that seized her. The goddess does not intentionally accept evil clerics or worshippers in her service, but her madness obscures the true nature of them from her more often than not. Calo's sacred tree is the black cypress, which leir communities attempt to remove from their lands as a symbol of despair and strife.

Leiren
Lesser Power of Ysgard
Darksighted, the Seeking Savior, the Restless Hero
Alignment: Lawful good
Portfolio: Exploration, community, protection, hope
Divine Realm: Ysgard/Nidavellir/wanders
Symbol: A spool of silk around a spear
Domains Community, Courage, Good, Law, Protection, Travel
Favored Weapon: Spear

Namesake of the leir (who formerly called themselves yurden after their homeworld) and first child of Omatra and Calo, Leiren is an unsleeping deity who keeps a close watch on the surviving conclaves of his people. As his mothers have both sunken into a broken state, Leiren considers it his duty to preserve their children and ensure that they have a future, which keeps him on the move through the planes, always listening for new threats that might require another voyage into the stars. Leiren understands the principles of spelljamming and to save the leir in an ancient era, risked everything to make himself incarnate on the Prime and lead them through the phlogiston to new spheres, knowing that his destruction in that place would end his existence as the Flow is cut off from the planes proper. He is still considered (in effect) the chief deity of the pantheon and wears the responsibility uneasily on his scapulae. Leiren is symbolized by oak trees.

Omatra
Demipower of Hades
Stillheart, Silent Mother, Lighter of Life
Alignment: True neutral (formerly lawful good)
Portfolio: Leir, the earth, life, home
Divine Realm: Hades/Niflheim/the Crumbling Chrysalis, formerly Bytopia/Dothion/the Radiant Chrysalis
Symbol: A dried chrysalis or an apple sitting in a discarded chrysalis
Domains Cavern, Decay, Earth, Life, Repose, formerly Earth, Good, Law, Life, Renewal, Repose
Favored Weapon: Bolas

One of the two mother goddesses of the leir, Omatra was the embodiment of the ancient leir homeworld and a goddess of the cycle of life. In the wake of the shattering of Yurd by the grell, Omatra fell into utter despondence, and the despair and sorrow her children felt for the loss of their home only further reinforced her own pain, resulting in her palatial chrysalis realm plummeting out of its celestial home and finding itself deep within the fog and sorrow of Niflheim. Her divine children continue to visit and attempt to keep her connected to the pantheon and her people, and she remains the goddess to whom they reach out when once more trying to build beneath the surface of the earth, but Omatra continues to fade with each passing year. None can say what would happen to the leir if she died, and few are keen to find out. Omatra rarely interacts with any other deities of her own volition but is known to awaken with great fury at the mention of Vesperian, the desmodu god, or any rumblings of Lolth. Omatra is symbolized by apple trees and fruit.

Oncacatra
Demipower of Bytopia
Weaver of Shelter, Succoring Hand, the Merciful
Alignment: Neutral good
Portfolio: Mercy, restraint, aid, shelter
Divine Realm: Bytopia/Shurrock/Succor's Hearth, formerly Bytopia/Dothion/Weavers' Conclave
Symbol: A tent containing a spindle
Domains Community, Good, Healing, Liberation, Protection
Favored Weapon: Net

A great friend of Zanat despite their opposing views, Oncacatra is the patron of merciful combat and submission, the battle goddess who gifted the leir with their prowess with the net, sai, and whip. In the wake of the shattering of Yurd, the merciful goddess moved her realm from pastoral Dothion to wild Shurrock in order to offer aid to those in need, but she has remained relatively untouched by the struggles of the pantheon compared to many of her brethren. Her faithful serve as healers and jailers, wardens and protectors, scouts and guards. In the distant past, she worked alongside Zanat in his role as the god of justice, but now she tempers his teachings with her methods of mercy. The second child of Omatra and Calo, she is the only one who still attempts to visit both mothers (the others check in on Omatra but have grown despondent about Calo's madness). It is at the instruction of Oncacatra that leir conclaves allow outsiders to visit, and she reminds the leir (alongside Leiren) that they too are strangers in strange lands, travellers seeking succor, and interlopers trying to find what they need to make new lives. Her sacred tree is the birch, which is often found at the "entrance" to a conclave's lands.

Seleir
Demipower of Baator
the Sartorial, Sunstealer, the Gold-Faced God
Alignment: Lawful evil (formerly lawful neutral)
Portfolio: Fashion, finery, pride, light, culture
Divine Realm: Baator/Dis/Szartor, formerly Arcadia/Abellio/Sartoria
Symbol: A leir mask with four spikes mimicking the rays of the dawning sun
Domains Evil, Law, Nobility, Silk*, Sun, Wealth, formerly Community, Law, Silk*, Sun, Trade, Wealth
Favored Weapon: Whip

Another deity severely changed by the violent history of the leir, Seleir was at one time the leir god of commerce and culture. In the wake of the scattering of the leir remnants, the sun god has become a prideful, fragile creature whose most popular myth is that he steals the sun away for half of each day (causing night) because he cannot bear to be parted from its golden glory. Seleir appreciates this myth as it keeps him relevant, but in truth beneath his narcissistic veneer, the god of fashion feels his relevance fading, as insular conclaves struggle to trade and the challenges facing the leir continue to grow in number. While his clerics keep up appearances, in truth Seleir is concerned about the future of the leir and goes back and forth between Leiren and Zanat exploring solutions for their current struggles. His sacred tree is the cherry.

Tesk
Lesser Power of Mount Celestia
Pureflame, the Brilliant Brand, the Torchbearing God
Alignment: Lawful good
Portfolio: Fire, wisdom, self-understanding
Divine Realm: Celestia/Solania/the Pearly Caldera
Symbol: A flame inside a lantern
Domains Fire, Good, Knowledge, Law, Passion, Purification
Favored Weapon: Scimitar or torch

Technically an interloper deity rather than a child of Omatra and Calo, Tesk was befriended by Leiren during the escape from Yurd, sometime before the dark era of the desmodu. A god of light, warmth, and flame, Tesk sent his burning emissaries to liberate the leir during hostilities with the desmodu and again to aid them in revolting against the drow, cultivating a base of worship among the leir and an eternal reverence for the power and usefulness of fire. Tesk is unorthodox as fire deities go - most are neither lawful nor good, and relatively few live on the Upper Planes, let alone on Mount Celestia. It is the teaching of his church and the leir at large, however, that fire is among the most orderly forces of the cosmos, for although its power may spread unchecked if one is not careful, fire obeys predictable rules and will always act in ways that can be understood. Tesk is depicted as an ascetic, living in a crystalline chamber in a misty caldera, not unlike a flame in a lantern - a monk whose passions flare up when he is fed too liberally or exposed to strong drink (not unlike how fire will spread when given solid fuel or introduced to alcohol).

Tesk is sometimes depicted as a golden leir with flames in place of his scapular and cranial membranes, and other times as a pillar or sphere of living flame. His allegiance with the leir pantheon fascinates the leir, who have taken to learning the Ignan language in some conclaves as a show of respect for the historical role Tesk's flaming servants played in helping preserve the race. Alone among the leir pantheon, Tesk is worshipped by members of other races on a regular basis, as he was not native to Yurd and is not a racial deity. Tesk is symbolized with ash trees.

Usknavar
Demipower of Gehenna
Truthweaver, Keeper of the True Face, Unraveller of Lies
Alignment: Lawful evil
Portfolio: Truth, emotions, masks, honesty, painful realization
Divine Realm: Gehenna/Krangath/Uttermost Truth
Symbol: A cracked leir mask
Domains Evil, Fate, Inquisition, Knowledge, Law, Passion
Favored Weapon: Sasumata^DR331

An unusual deity, Usknavar is the goddess of truth, who exposes leir to the painful realities of the cosmos, demanding that they confront their anger, despair, and confusion in order to become stronger and more in touch with their own truth and the universal truths. She is also the patron of maskmakers, and the famous rose lacquer masks of the leir were devised by her as a ritual implement to use in honest communication. It is said that she lurks deep in her icy layer, trying to craft a mask that will reveal the perfect truth to Calo and in doing so heal her madness - some myths instead say she is making a mask to show the truth of leir survival to Omatra, in order to raise her up from despair. The darkest myths claim Usknavar's work is intended to reveal the truth of total despair, to reveal to the mother goddesses in order to destroy them both, but her devotees say this is insulting nonsense. Usknavar is on good terms with the rest of the pantheon besides the mother goddesses, though she rarely speaks with them except to replace their masks. She reviews Zass's Tapestry of Time to find falsehoods and pick out stray threads and tangles that have infiltrated it at Calo's hand, and while she is sometimes portrayed as a diabolical figure in leir religion, she is nonetheless publicly revered and not generally considered an adversarial figure. That said, Usknavar herself would be the first to admit she is often deliberately cruel and unkind, but the goddess is known to never tell a lie or even allow a false impression to stand. It is against her nature - she doesn't use the truth in order to hurt others; she uses hurt when it would force them to confront the truth. Usknavar's symbolic tree is the elm, and many lacquer masks are made using elm wood as the base.

Zanat
Demipower of Acheron
The Horned Warrior, Silkensteel, the Violent One, the Vengeance of Yurd
Alignment: Lawful evil (formerly lawful neutral)
Portfolio: Combat, vengeance, violent defense, harm
Divine Realm: Acheron/Avalas/Dynastes
Symbol: A hercules beetle
Domains Evil, Law, Metal, Protection, Retribution, War, formerly Community, Family, Law, Protection, Renewal, Retribution
Favored Weapon: Halberd

Though leir are as a general rule inclined toward nonviolent solutions, peaceful methods, and subdual over slaughter, the horrors of their racial history gave new character to Zanat, the god of justice, civilization, and progress. Where his mother Omatra broke from the pain of her world's destruction, Zanat hardened, absorbing the feelings of injustice and terror in his followers and creating the artifact known as the Steel Cocoon, wherein he transformed himself, taking in the strength and ferocity he needed without allowing himself to be swept away by madness and pure rage. His emergent form is horned, cold, steely, and wears a permanent metal mask fused to his face. While his ideals still lean toward justice (and indeed, he is considered the preeminent deity of leir courts when they must be convened), Zanat has become a proponent of war and violence to ensure that the leir will never again be victims of those whose cruelties so shattered the race. Although his nature has turned evil, Zanat is still a fairly benign deity as far as his own people are concerned, well-regarded, worshipped in leir conclaves, and on good terms with his siblings in the pantheon. He has disowned Calo as his mother due to her madness and the strife she causes, and visits Omatra to promise vengeance against the grell, the desmodu, the drow, and others. Zanat's symbolic tree is the holly.

Zass
Lesser Power of Mechanus
The Silken God, the Silver Spool, Master of Moths
Alignment: Lawful neutral
Portfolio: Silk, patience, craft, history, the dead
Divine Realm: Mechanus/Silver Spindle
Symbol: A spindle with moth wings
Domains Craft, Knowledge, Law, Repose, Silk*, Time
Favored Weapon: Sai

A quiet, reserved, and patient god, Zass is unlikely friends with Seleir despite their opposing personalities. As one of the two funerary deities of the leir, Zass is responsible for overseeing tradition, legacy, and history, all traits which make him the perfect custodian of the leir art of silk cultivation. From his silvery tower, Zass observes the threads of leir lives as they intermingle and ultimately come to an end, weaving their way into the Tapestry of Time and showing him the patterns of perseverance that mark the leir character. His mothlike servitors escort the souls of dead leir past the Tapestry of Time to let them witness their own individual contributions and how things shall endure going into the future. The process of harvesting silk has always been interwoven with death, and the silvery needles used to unthread the filaments from the dead insects are consecrated to Zass in almost all leir communities. The sacred tree of Zass is the mulberry.

Other Deities of the Leir

Lupercio
Demon Lord of the Abyss
Baron of Sloth
Alignment: Chaotic evil
Portfolio: Sloth, darkness, the strength of darkness
Divine Realm: Abyss/128/Slugbed
Symbol: A fanged maw in a jet-black circle
Domains Chaos, Darkness, Destruction, Evil, Sloth, Strength
Favored Weapon: Unarmed strike

It remains unknown whether the demon lord Lupercio first set his attentions on the leir due to the mad weavings of Calo, or whether it was some vile cultists among the desmodu (or even the drow) conjuring him to consume the race that had escaped their grasp. Regardless of how it happened, it did happen, and while the Baron of Sloth is among the least menacing of Abyssal lords to count as a foe, he remains a child of Pale Night herself, a terrible force of darkness kept in check only by his own all-consuming laziness. Fortunately for the leir, Lupercio has very few cults on the Material Plane and almost no followers who can channel his power into spells; unfortunately for the leir, some few mad members of their own kind have made it their life's work to give the Baron of Sloth power over their souls. On any world in which one of these scattered tendrils of the demon lord's power exists and can produce a viable caster, such an agent will likely move against any leir conclaves that can be found, chiefly for Lupercio's personal amusement, but also to sate his hunger for new souls to devour.

Zuggtmoy
Demon Lord of the Abyss
Demon Queen of Fungi, Lady of Rot and Decay, Lady of Fungi
Alignment: Chaotic evil
Portfolio: Fungi
Divine Realm: Abyss/222/Shedaklah
Symbol: A broken jawless skull with a sickly mushroom growing from a hole in its crown
Domains Chaos, Corruption, Evil, Ooze, Plant
Favored Weapon: Scythe

Unlike Lupercio, it is very well known how Zuggtmoy discovered the leir - as with many other terrible things that have happened, it was through the agency of Lolth, Demon Queen of Spiders. In the wake of the escape of the leir from the control of the drow, Lolth tricked one of her own high priestesses into converting to Zuggtmoy's faith and had her share with the Demon Queen of Fungi the nature of the leir and their defiance of Lolth. Zuggtmoy could not believe the windfall - an insectile race that could be parasitized by her evil fungi, not only extending her reach on the Material Plane, but also proving herself superior to her hated rival, succeeding where Lolth had failed? It was too perfect. Zuggtmoy has been an enemy of the leir ever since, although her champion priestess in the cause ran afoul of Tesk's high priest and had an unfortunate encounter with as much fire as was needed to burn her to death and then a bit more than that. Lolth was most likely responsible for that happening, too - after all, Lolth is the worst.

Regardless of the involvement of the drow goddess, Zuggtmoy now considers the leir hers to infest, torment, control, and ultimately devour. She would contest Lupercio's ambitions if she actually knew about them, but the Baron of Sloth is both a more minor player on the Prime and also deeply lazy. Nevertheless, the presence of two demon lords vying to consume and annihilate the leir race is an ill tiding for the scattered people, and Zuggtmoy's powers of infestation have delivered her far more leir cultists than Lupercio has. In a way, Zuggtmoy's ambitions both play into Calo's mad interventions and are counteracted by them - the insane goddess attempts to disrupt any gathering of leir in numbers and strength purely out of an impulse to sow strife and weakness, which includes the Lady of Rot's gathered infested cults.

New Domains

Fear Domain
Granted Power You get a +2 bonus to saving throws against fear effects. The save DC of your fear effects is increased by 1.
1st - cause fear
2nd - scare
3rd - blade of pain and fear^SC
4th - fear
5th - phantasmal killer
6th - aura of terror^SC
7th - opalescent glare^SC
8th - final rebuke^SC
9th - weird

Silk Domain
Granted Power You get a +2 bonus to Balance, Climb, and Use Rope checks. All of these are treated as class skills for you.
1st - peacebond^City
2nd - web
3rd - spiderskin^SC
4th - minor creation (can also make silk fabric, thread, or rope)
5th - fabricate
6th - superior resistance^SC
7th - veil
8th - true creation
9th - cocoon^SC